I’ve been at this blogging game since 2011. Sometimes I feel the need to switch it up, and I’m always looking for ways to do that. With a desire to blog more in 2023 (because I really dropped the ball in 2022), I came across the below stack of quote cards when I was out shopping and promptly bought them. On each of the cards is a quote; as well, there is one on the back. I’m sure you can sense what’s coming…
In 2023, I plan on sharing these quotes and writing impressions and thoughts about them, perhaps through a personal story or to provide inspiration. Anyway, that’s the plan, readers.
The first quote I pulled today is this one:
Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you. – John De Paola
Reflecting upon this particular quote, I realize that it applies to the decision I made in 2022, and the one I plan to continue in 2023. When I stepped down from full-time teaching in May and transitioned to part-time teaching in the Online University, it was just what the doctor ordered. I was feeling burned out. I’d been teaching since in some capacity since 1993 and working in a sort of frenzy for the last 14 years. The opportunity to pull back a little has offered me a completely new perspective on life. At my age, I don’t want to work harder, I want to work smarter. I want to write my novels. I want to spend more time with the people I love. I want to travel. I want to do some personal things I’ve been yearning to do (for example, I have joined a women’s group that meets every Wednesday morning and I absolutely love it, and I’m writing freelance travel articles). I’m working on my health and trying to get this back of mine up to snuff. I suppose you can say that everything I’ve needed to do has required me to slow down. End of story.
As I have truly felt the benefits of my decision, my wish for YOU is that you, too, can find some time to slow down, enjoy things that make you happy, and become rejuvenated. I know not everyone I’m talking to is at semi-retirement or retirement age. If you are someone who is beginning a career or is mid-career, do your best to find time in your life for yourself to do the things you love. Don’t pencil your time into your calendars – use ink and commit to it, so you don’t reach a state of burnout. Use all your vacation days, even if some of them are spent at the park, taking a day trip, reading your favorite book, or meeting family or friends at your favorite coffee spot or restaurant.
Think about starting the year off with a plan to slow down. The pandemic forced us all to do take this approach for a while. Let’s not lose sight of just how beneficial that aspect of what we went through was for a lot of us.
Happy New Year!
